What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a sad Doctor Who fan tonight, that’s for sure. With the premiere of a new season less than a week away, tragedy has struck. We must press on, but we must also remember fondly Elisabeth Sladen. There will also be a slew of interesting news, but first, some sadness…

Elisabeth Sladen — best known as Sarah Jane Smith of Doctor Who fame — has passed away this week at the age of 63. For those who are not familiar with her work, she was one of the most famous companions in the long history of Who. She was the show’s heart and soul for a time, and reprised the character many times over the course of 38 years. That’s one hell of a run. She will be missed.

Fast Five is not the end of the Fast and Furious franchise. Phew. Writer Chris Morgan has already signed a deal with Universal to begin work on Fast Six, the inevitable sequel to the series that might be one of the only reasons why Universal hasn’t fallen into the Pacific Ocean yet. Long live Vin Diesel movies and a studio that takes risks!

“There’s a lot of action in this. There are a lot of big set pieces in this film, which is exciting. Basically, as I said to the studio, at the core it’s a love story between Elizabeth and Darcy. If that’s not working, and we’re not rooting for those two get together through all this craziness, the movie is not going to work. That’s key to me, to have this great emotional story going on, and all this craziness.” That’s Craig Gillespie, recently confirmed as director of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, talking about what you can expect from the long-gestating project.

According to the records kept by James Cameron’s documentary The Terminator, SkyNet went live this evening at 8:11pm PST. The nuclear Armageddon is scheduled to happen in the next few days. Which begs the question: do we have enough time for another viewing of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Season 6 before we go?

In a recent interview with Coming Soon, Zach Braff may or may not have said he’s still interested in making a sequel to Garden State. I’ve read his quote three times now and I’m not sure what to make of it. I don’t think it’s happening.

All the rage of the gaming community this week is Portal 2, a puzzle-solving game that challenges you to “use wits over weaponry in a funhouse of diabolical science” (awesome). In it’s PC and Mac version, Portal 2 has with it a little interactive trailer for one of the most talked-about things in the movie world: J.J. Abrams’ Super 8. Check it out below, courtesy of Kotaku:

The Michael Bay produced, McG directed Ouija film is still in development. The good news for all of you who are dying to see it come to fruition is that they’ve hired Evan Spiliotopoulos, the writer of Disney’s The Lion King 1 1/2. You just can’t make stuff like this up.

Marvel Chief Kevin Feige says that Captain America and Thor sequels are not out of the question: “Thor will go off into a new adventure, and Captain America will continue to explore the modern world in another film of his own. We hope that holds true for the characters appearing in that film — Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. —all of whom are more than worthy and capable of carrying their own films. And, we’ve got a lot of other characters we’re prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts, these great cosmic space fantasies, Dr. Strange, and the magic side of the Marvel Universe. There are many, many stories to be mined.”

Patrick Warburton (The Tick, all the good voice stuff) will join Seth MacFarlane’s live-action/CGI-hybrid film Ted. He will play a character described in the casting notes as “a burly Patrick Warburton type.” I can hear the agent/casting director call now: “I’ve got the perfect ‘burly Patrick Warburton type’ for you. You’ll never guess who it is.”

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